WHITCHURCH OFFENDER LUKAS DEACON AND LISA WATSON SENTENCED FOR SEXUAL ABUSE AND OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE IN BRISTOL

In September 2017, a woman from Whitchurch was sentenced to prison for assisting her boyfriend in lying about his sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl. Lukas Deacon and his partner of ten years, Lisa Watson, were both jailed after DNA evidence proved their account was false.

Bristol Crown Court heard that Deacon, of Jacob Street in Old Market, had assaulted the girl while Watson, 37, slept nearby in the same room. The teenager confided in her mother about the abuse, leading Deacon and Watson to craft a false story claiming the girl’s allegations could not be true because they were both awake and asleep at the same time on the night in question.

Despite discovering DNA evidence linking Deacon to the girl — including DNA on his boxer shorts — the couple persisted in denying any wrongdoing. Deacon, 29, received a sentence of seven and a half years for the sexual abuse, perverting the course of justice, and breaking into a neighbor’s flat to steal a bottle of whiskey. Watson, of Ridgeway Court in Ridgeway Lane, Whitchurch, was described by the judge as the more intellectually capable of the two, and was identified as the one who devised the false story. She was sentenced to 18 months for perverting the course of justice, and she was visibly upset as she was led away.

Earlier at trial, a jury convicted Deacon of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with the vulnerable girl and for briefly placing her hand on his groin over his clothes before she pushed him away. The judge commented to Deacon, "You believed she had an immature crush on you. You believed that would enable you to get away with these offences," adding that his abuse had caused severe emotional and psychological harm to the victim. "It is extremely unlikely she will forget the circumstances of the abuse, and it will scar her emotional future," he said.

After the abuse, the girl told her mother, and when police became involved, Deacon and Watson, who had previously lived together in Whitchurch, fabricated the same story to describe the night’s events, an effort the judge labeled as "lies and deceit to stop a victim finding justice." Their deception forced the girl to testify in court. Even when DNA evidence emerged, the couple maintained their false version.

The judge addressed Watson specifically, saying, "You had multiple opportunities to withdraw your story. You supported the abuse and did your best to prevent her justice. The motivation to collude likely came from you, Lisa Watson."

Prosecutor Jennifer Tallintine revealed that while on bail for the sexual offences, Deacon, intoxicated and after a disagreement with Watson, entered a neighboring flat through a window in Ridgeway Court to steal a bottle of whiskey after being refused entry. Deacon pleaded guilty to burglary following his trial for the sex offences and the perverting of justice.

The judge also ordered Deacon to register as a sex offender for life.